State laws and procedures for finding out if a person or car is insured may differ but normally one can go through some state agency to find out if a person has insurance. If you want to see if a certain car is insured some Department of Motor Vehicles may be able to give you this information if you have a license plate or VIN for the vehicle. In some states the DMV might steer you towards another state agency to contact.

In other states you will need to contact the state's insurance regulatory agency (DOI) with the information you have on a person and their vehicle and try to receive insurance information for that person.

Normally people are searching for insurance information after an accident. For example in Florida if you contact the Bureau of Financial Responsibility with a crash report they should research and reply to you within 10 days. In California you can request the insurance information by contacting the DMV's Financial Responsibility Unit and submitting a form after an accident.

In New York you fill out form FS-25 which is a Request for Insurance Information for NY Registrants Involved in an Accident and is available on the NYS DMV web site. You then send in the form with a $10 fee and the DMV will try to verify the insurance coverage of the vehicle.

Since you are trying to get information on a person’s insurance status before an accident occurs there may be different steps for you to take but the DMV or DOI for your state should be able to help you.